What is your opinion on Plush's new program?

He surprised me this time. I knew he was trying to do something new, approaching a Japanese choreographer, etc.
First when the program started, his swan imaged costume with Rondo Capriccioso confused me a little, then it came to Swan. Of course the costume can't stop you to compare him to Johnny or Ge, a more slim line skaters, but.
After all the best part for me of this program is this king of skate's shy smile in the end, that is telling, "Hey, I've tried something new". I'm not a big fan of him, but as time passes I respect him more and more.

I was surprised in a good way. Swan was interesting and fun to watch. It really suits him. Of course it needs additional works. It was like a skeleton yet. I'll be happy if I can watch complete its final version in London.
About skating, I thought that he has improved a lot since 2010. Or rather, he just back on his former form.
The music arrangement was odd. I mean, moving from Swan to Danse Macabre. I hope he will fix.

Of course the costume can't stop you to compare him to Johnny or Ge, a more slim line skaters,

Me too, compared to them Though I don't think Johnny is a slim line skater. Actually he has a muscular build

Come on! It can hardly be called a program yet since it's clearly undercooked. I am not even sure if he is going to show it anywhere at competitions. Seems like they are fishing. For me the whole skating looked like a joke and satire than the actual serious test. The Swan part is definitely the best grotesque, some kind of homophobic parody on Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake.

I can see that he's really skated on deeper edges and more transitions and challenged himself to do so. At he's age, my hat's off for him!

I don't like his costume and the idea of choosing this music. The idea of swan - black swan or white swan - with thick waist of his and Johnny Weir's (and all men's for that matter) does not flatter on them. It's not my cup of tea.

He surprised me this time. I knew he was trying to do something new, approaching a Japanese choreographer, etc.
First when the program started, his swan imaged costume with Rondo Capriccioso confused me a little, then it came to Swan. Of course the costume can't stop you to compare him to Johnny or Ge, a more slim line skaters, but.
After all the best part for me of this program is this king of skate's shy smile in the end, that is telling, "Hey, I've tried something new". I'm not a big fan of him, but as time passes I respect him more and more.

Thanks for sharing this clip. First of all, I am very impressed by Plushenko's dedication to continue to skate and compete after accomplishing so much in the sport of Figure Skating. I am delighted to see him planning to compete again in major international competitions this season and hope that it will inspire the younger generation of male Russian skaters to rebuild and achieve new heights. I also want to congratulate Plushenko for exploring a style that is a little bit outside of his comfort zone - he is a rock star and acts like one on the ice, therefore, the smooth, classical and at times, understated style of his current chosen music is definitely a departure for him. It says to me he isn't the one to shy away from changes and is a true fighter. We saw that he briefly returned to his "Rock Star" self at the end in his straight line step sequence, though overall, a vailliant effort, including the attempt at Quad Salchow, to be different and that is very respectable.

As usual, I will give my comments from a more technical perspective at the beginning of the season since all new programs have areas each skater can improve and work on.

- Solid jumps overall, tripled the Quad Toe but it is expected he will get that element back pretty shortly. Would be interesting to see if he will stick with his planned Quad Salchow later in the season given that it is << and landed on two feet here. Not sure if he again made a mental error or not but he didn't do the 2nd Triple Axel in combination, shades of the ghost from Vancouver Olympics to me where a 2T could have won him gold. Mishin needs to make sure Plushenko doesn't make such error again no matter how serious or relax the competition may be so that he will remember to do it too even under pressure. Put it this way, if Plushenko doesn't develop the right mental habit at lesser competition, how can you expect him to deliver at Worlds or when pressure is on?

- Spins, not much to say, they don't particularly stand out. He's got amazing flexibility but the Biellmann position is missing. Recommend that he uses his known flexibility to his advantage and explore more creative / memorable positions in his spins because at 30, he may be unable to compete with the younger men on spin execution but he sure can stand out with his flexibility.

- Step Sequences, it's early in the season though Plushenko needs to improve the flow of his SS execution. For instance, the final straight line SS didn't go from end to end across the rink, covered approx. 3/4 of the ice surface only. Althought not standing still, his flow is considerably reduced when he starts to execute turns in his SS. With that, it will be hard for him to score high GOE

- The most concerning part of this program remains the components, in particular, the lack of proper and sufficient amount of Transitions in between elements. Plushenko continues to pay insufficient attention with his in-between elements skating, which makes his overall composition quite a bit simpler to execute but also doing less compared to other top male skaters. I am sure his expression and interpretation will improve once he gets used to this new program but at the risk of sounding like a broken record, he needs to up the ante on his Transitions and overall composition of his program, if not, he will have a hard time competing against the very best in the world right now